About Cults.co.nz and
the New Zealand Cult List

The NZ Cult List was started on 11 September 1999 by Ian Mander as a
list of cults operating in New Zealand. It was quickly realised that a
list of just cult groups was not sufficient to answer visitors' questions
about the beliefs and practices of a wider range of groups than just cults.
Thus, to help people sort out the good from the bad the list expanded
to include New Zealand cults, sects, religions, Christian organisations
and other groups.

The list has been slowly growing ever since. The list will never be a
complete, exhaustive list of religious groups in New Zealand, or even
just the cult groups in New Zealand. Because of constraints on our time,
we'll probably never get around to listing every group that currently
exists, and new groups arrive in New Zealand every year. However, we do
endeavour to list all that we can, and all of the most significant groups.

In October 2003 a major overhaul was completed, with the list being combined
with more information to create a new web site - Cults.co.nz.

The new site has more information and hopefully makes the information
even easier to find. The current editor is Ian Mander.

The list will be of most use to Christians in New Zealand, as the list
entries have been written from a Christian perspective with New Zealanders
in mind. The entries are not intended to offend people. We try to draw
a distinction between an individual and that individual's beliefs. Please
understand that if you belong to one of the groups listed here and you
don't like what is written, you are not being personally attacked. In
almost all cases it is the group or cult that you belong to that is being
exposed - normally because they try to unfairly control the lives of their
members.

Many people take a "Let's bury our head in the sand" approach
to the cults. They ignore the dangers of cults in the mistaken belief
that the cults could not affect them. Sadly, cults and false religions
can deceive all sorts of people. Very intelligent and well educated people
are often misled by the cults. For more information on this see the Cult
FAQ section on who
joins cults. Read the rest of the Cult FAQ for more information on
the dangers of cults, especially techniques
of mind control.